Page 88 of The Last Session

This is our cold plunge!I pictured Moon at the edge of the hole, naked and gleeful.So good for your circulation!

I climbed towards its left side, where Mikki and Jonah were standing. My foot slipped and dropped into the water. I cried out with the sudden terrifying possibility of being sucked down into the hole, never to be heard from again.

Jonah grabbed my shoulders, supporting me until I was back on the rock.

I choked back a sob filled with frustration and fear. I was fine. I was doing fine.

“This is it, right?” He shone his light on the white skull-like object. It was the sculpture of Catherine’s head set on top of a plank of wood near the hole’s entrance. A large lit candle burned beside it.

“Yes,” I gasped. Who had brought the sculpture down here? Lit the candle? And why?

“This is the missing girl?” Mikki bent to study it. “It kind of looks likeyou.”

“They look alike.” Jonah bent to take a picture with his phone.

“No eyes. Creepy,” Mikki muttered. “And these.” She bent to pickup one of several ceramic shards on the other side of the candle. “What are these?”

“They look like the painting.” I peered over her shoulder.

“What painting?” Jonah asked.

“One I saw in the junk room.” This shard had the two largest figures on it, their square arms pointing at the sky. The other shards showed the torso of the striped figure, the bottom half of the couple behind the patterned square.

Mikki lifted the sculpture, grabbing something beneath it. “Oh.” She held up a shining gold necklace. “This looks like Moon’s.”

“It’s Catherine’s.” It suddenly felt hard to breathe.

“This is that symbol, right?” Jonah shone his light between the sculpture and candle; someone had painted a red spiral trapped in a triangle, the spiral’s line dotted with circles.

Moon’s excuse—that she’d dreamed about the symbol as a kid, that it had no connection at all toStargirl—suddenly seemed very thin.

“We have to leave.” The words came out in a whisper. No one heard me over the rush of the water. Now Jonah was examining the necklace.

“Guys!” My voice came out sharp, jarring. “We have to get out of here.”

Mikki’s and Jonah’s eyes were wide.

“What’s the matter?” Mikki asked.

“What’s thematter? This is a fuckingshrineto Catherine.”

“It might not be hers,” Jonah said quietly. “Maybe all the women at the Center have this necklace.”

“But why is herheadhere?” I cried.

“So I don’t want anyone to freak out.” Mikki held up a red-tipped finger, the whites visible around her irises. “But I think this is blood.” She dipped it again in the water, rubbed it against the spiral, and held it to her nose. “It smells like blood.”

I pressed a hand to my mouth, suddenly nauseous. An image arose, superimposed on the shadowed rocks: Catherine standing in front of the hole. Someone coming up behind her, pushing her in.

You tricked me! How could you do that to me? It should’ve beenyou!

I backed away, my foot slipping and plunging again into cold water. It sucked at my ankle, pulling me towards the black void, stronger than I would’ve imagined. I turned and scrambled over the wet rocks, my breath ragged in my throat.

I had to get out of here.

Who knew if the vision of Catherine was a good guess or just a random theory offered up by my imagination. What I did know was that this place held a darkness—an evil—that I needed to escape immediately.

I slid over the rocks, again slipping and banging my left knee. I pushed myself up and kept going, barely registering the sharp, stinging pain.